title: A multi-center study on the attitudes of Malaysian emergency health care staff towards allowing family presence during resuscitation of adult patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The practice of allowing family members to witness on-going active resuscitation has been gaining ground in many developed countries since it was first introduced in the early 1990s. In many Asian countries, the acceptability of this practice has not been well studied.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We conducted a multi-center questionnaire study to determine the attitudes of health care professionals in Malaysia towards family presence to witness ongoing medical procedures during resuscitation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a bilingual questionnaire (in Malay and English language), we asked our respondents about their attitudes towards allowing family presence (FP) as well as their actual experience of requests from families to be allowed to witness resuscitations. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the association between the many variables and a positive attitude towards FP.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 300 health care professionals who received forms, 270 responded (a 90% response rate). Generally only 15.8% of our respondents agreed to allow relatives to witness resuscitations, although more than twice the number (38.5%) agreed that relatives do have a right to be around during resuscitation. Health care providers are significantly more likely to allow FP if the procedures are perceived as likely to be successful (e.g., intravenous cannulation and blood taking as compared to chest tube insertion). Doctors were more than twice as likely as paramedics to agree to FP (p-value = 0.002). This is probably due to the Malaysian work culture in our health care systems in which paramedics usually adopt a 'follow-the-leader' attitude in their daily practice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The concept of allowing FP is not well accepted among our Malaysian health care providers.
authors.affiliation: Emergency Medicine Department, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan Malaysia.
authors.forename: Chew Keng
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.forename: Chee Kean
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rashidi